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The Columbia University Global Policy Initiative, in partnership with the Refugee Hub at the University of Ottawa, is pleased to announce the launch of the Migration Consensus Initiative (MCI).

The Migration Consensus Initiative will undertake its work in the context of the negotiation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM) and the first-ever UN intergovernmental conference on migration, to be held in Mararakech, Morocco 10-11 December 2018. The GCM was called for in the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants, adopted by the United Nations in September 2016.

The MCI will generate policy ideas relevant to the international discussions on the GCM and beyond. It also will convene key stakeholders from among governments, experts, and civil society to help build a consensus around a common agenda that can address both the challenges and the promise of migration. In this regard, the MCI will host the Informals bringing together representatives of various stakeholders to exchange views and share information on efforts and engagements in the context of the negotiations on the GCM. Informed by discussions in the Informals, the MCI will organize several Expert Meetings on issues relevant to the five pillars of the initiative.

In March and September 2018, the MCI will organize Stakeholders’ Retreats with the aim of advancing focused engagement between scholars, practitioners, and Member States’ negotiators on specific issues related to the GCM.

Working closely with its partners and all relevant stakeholders, the MCI will work towards organizing, on the margins of the Intergovernmental Conference for Migration in Marrakech, the first Migration Global Stakeholders Summit. The MCI will also support efforts in connection with the preparation and organization of the 2018 Global Mayors Summit for Migration and Refugees, as well as several regional events and initiatives on migration.

While people are as mobile as they ever were in our globalized world, the movement of people across borders lacks global regulation. This leaves many refugees and migrants unprotected in irregular and dire situations. Meanwhile, some states have become concerned that their borders have become irrelevant. International mobility—the movement of any individual across borders for any length of time—has no common definition or legal framework. To address this key gap in international law, and the growing gaps in protection and responsibility that are leaving people vulnerable, the “Model International Mobility Convention” proposes a framework for mobility with the goals of reaffirming the existing rights afforded to mobile people (and the corresponding rights and responsibilities of states) as well as expanding those basic rights where warranted.

Report of Mr. Peter Sutherland, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Migration, on how to achieve better management of migration through international cooperation and strengthen the engagement of the UN on migration.